Self-locking expandable seal activator

Abstract

An expandable anchor / seal is pushed up a ramp until making contact with the surrounding tubular as or after the anchor / seal contacts the same tubular. The setting sleeve is made from high yield steel that has a weakened leading end to reduce the force required to push the leading end and the anchor / seal and an outer surface treatment at a leading end that engages or penetrates the wall of the surrounding tubular. Preferably a plurality of fingers are formed with axially oriented slots starting from a leading end allowing fingers to flex as they ride up the ramp on the mandrel for setting the anchor / seal and locking that set with the setting sleeve exterior surface configuration that can abut or penetrate the surrounding tubular.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14 / 276,496, filed on May 13, 2014, and claims the benefit of priority from the aforementioned application.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The field of this invention is expandable seals that are anchored and more particularly a setting sleeve that locks to the surrounding tubular when the seal / anchor has been expanded to engage the surrounding tubular.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Expandable seals / anchors have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,784,797. These designs were ring shapes of a relatively soft material that were pushed up a ramp surface to engage a surrounding tubular. One optional feature on such a design was the use of hardened buttons for penetration into the surrounding tubular. The buttons were disposed in an offset location from extending ribs that would also engage the surrounding tubular and could also optionally penetrate the tubular wall for a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This solution improves the anchoring and sealing efficiency by transmitting the anchor force effectively through high yield steel and reduces the force needed to expand the seal assembly, preventing damage to the surrounding tubular while maintaining a secure lock.

Problems solved by technology

The issue that developed with this design was that although the anchoring feature into the wall of the surrounding tubular was adequate to retain the seal the small dimension of the carbide buttons limited the grip force on the assembly.

Another issue with the known design is that the setting sleeve was made of a relatively soft material to reduce the needed pushing force to get the sleeve to go up a ramped mandrel surface with the seal / anchor assembly to achieve the set position.

As a result relatively low yield steel structures were used for the setting sleeve.

Such soft materials were not optimal in transferring an anchor force directly to the mandrel and in the past were not at all used for such function since the outer dimension on riding up the mandrel ramp was dimensioned to avoid engaging the surrounding tubular wall.

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